What Pillars Do We Stand On Today?

It’s Wednesday morning.

I am writing this blog five days before November 5. Election Day, 2024. Likely, a winner will have been decided when it pops up in your email or feed. Your world will either be rocked in a negative way or positive. You might be depressed and fearful, or perhaps hopeful and jubilant.

Regardless of who ends up leading our nation, I write this post with confidence that a Sovereign God reigns above every other ruler.

My husband and I live in a small ranch house in Virginia. It has a couple of pillars in the front. So does almost every other structure in the state. Colonial and European inspired, the pillared-Virginian buildings often date back to our country’s founding fathers.

Some of the Greek Revival architectural columns are so massive I can’t begin to get my arms around them. The front gable-end design adorned with grand pillars seem to hold up massive brick structures in Herculean arms. Early history surrounds us where we live, literally reminding us daily of it foundations, past leaders, and significant events.

An unlikely Bible chapter, on this pre-election morning as I write, brought me from the nation’s chaotic “closing” arguments to a moment of peace. And although the passage has nothing to do with our election, I stopped and breathed in its truth. For it is timeless and hope filled. The first chapter of 1 Samuel tells the story of a young Hannah. Oh how desperately she wanted a child, and how cruelly she was treated by her rival. The account touched me with its deep raw emotion and subsequent palpable joy. Belittled by her husband’s second wife and her fertility, Hannah felt mocked and degraded.

But in the joy of answered prayer, Hannah recognized a God who cared for much more than her circumstances. His overview is vast. He sees not just the big, but also the small, not just the significant, but also the seemingly insignificant, not just the present, but the past and the future.

Hannah, in her joy, recognized Him as Sovereign Ruler, Upholder of All.

“For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s,

    and on them he has set the world.” (1 Samuel 2:8b ESV)

The physical world Hannah lived in, however, was at a low point. Israel’s spiritual temperature lacked fervency. Idolatry was rampant, judges and priests were dishonest.

But, the pillars of the world weren’t set by corrupt leaders, but by a Sovereign God. They still are. And in these politically tense days, this verse, seemed to reach out and embrace the uncertainty. Because God saw little Hannah within the chaos of a wicked world, and he heard her cry.

Surely God sees His people whenever and wherever they are.

When Job’s world was rocked by loss and sickness he remembered that God’s power could shake the earth and make its pillars tremble. (Job 9:6)

The Psalmist proclaimed, “When the earth totters, and all its inhabitants, it is I who keep steady its pillars.” (Psalm 75:3 ESV)

Psalm 104:5 comforts us with God setting the earth, “on its foundations, so that it should never be moved.”

We live in times of fear that the foundations of our country, upon which its pillars were established are cracked and compromised. Sometimes it’s tempting to look to the founders as if they themselves held our country in their hands, as if they alone were the pillars, and we lament over our choices today.

“A nation gets the leader it deserves,” one of my eastern-block friends told me when we lived in Europe. We often heard this saying which reflected the people of the country first and the leader as consequential.

The America that began hundreds of years past was shaped by its people.

When everyday people like you and I turn our hearts to God, when our trust is founded on a solid Rock, when our beliefs are strongly rooted in God’s Word, when our spiritual vibrancy moves through our voices and actions, when we live out faith in our culture, the pillars remain steady even with tottering leaders. Throughout Scripture, God always used His people, regular ordinary you and me types, to change the course of history. The America that began hundreds of years past was shaped by its people. Share on X

So however you woke up this morning, the elected leader cannot mitigate our own spiritual responsibility to be salt and light within the flickering shadows of political landscapes.

He upholds the world by His power, and He’s got this too.Throughout Scripture, God always used His people, regular ordinary you and me types, to change the course of history Share on X

*Feature Photo by Philip Schroeder (Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello)